Patient 823
by silvercistern
Summary: "Frosting under heavy guard. Talking with Delly. Undergoing Prim's experimental therapy. Peeta's life in Thirteen, post-hijacking." Written for Prompts in Panem Everlark Week Day 6 - Peeta in Thirteen


**Name**: Peeta Mellark

**Sex**: Male

**Age**: 17

**Height**: 5 ft 8 in

**Weight**: 150 lbs

**Hair**: Blonde

**Eyes**: Blue

**Blood Type**: AB+

**Next of Kin**: Deceased. Legal ward of Soldier 2791: H. Abernathy.

**Pre-existing conditions**: Traumatic injury to the right leg resulting in BKA and Van-ness rotation. Removable cybernetic prosthetic regularly in use. PTSD and insomnia as a result of trauma encountered in the Seventy Fourth Hunger Games.

**Current Symptoms**: Patient shows signs of extreme malnourishment, physical abuse, and torture, including sexual assault. Patient 824: J. Mason, provides verbal evidence to support these indications. Patient is confused and often violent. Lacks access to recent long-term memories, especially those relating to Soldier 2794: K. Everdeen, whom the patient has physically assaulted.

**Labs**: Lab results show banned Substance 432: tracker jacker venom in Patient 823's bloodstream to be 500% higher than baseline amounts.

**Hypothesis**: Soldier 2795: B. Halloway has provided evidence to suggest that Patient 823 has undergone an invasive procedure known as "hijacking." In this procedure, Substance 432 is injected into the test patient in increasingly large doses while the patient undergoes extreme mental conditioning. This results in replacement of patient's existing memories with altered recollections, most often of a horrifying and disturbing nature due to the hallucinogenic properties of Substance 432. Until this point, all hijacking patients succumbed to the poisonous effect of the substance or self-terminated.

**Diagnosis**: Based on labs and symptomatic evidence, the official District Thirteen diagnosis for Patient 823 will follow Soldier 2795's recommendation, and the patient will be considered "hijacked."

**Treatment**: At this time, hijacking cannot be counteracted by any known therapeutic measures.

**Care assignments**: Doctor 64: S. Pertwee, Nurse 231: L. Harmony, and Trainee 14: P. Everdeen.

**_Patient 823- Week One Reflection_**

I'm not really certain how to write these yet, but Nurse Harmony insists that it is an important part of my training to write about the patient that I work with. I asked today why they assigned me to Peeta, and she said that they felt he would be more comfortable with someone he knew, which is in direct conflict with their earlier claims. I know I don't look very much like Katniss, but it seems strange to me all the same. He _has_ to associate me with her, and I don't see how that can be good for him right away. But maybe the part of him that is hidden away is the part that makes that association? I'm really not sure.

This probably isn't the way this should start. Not very scientific at all, and definitely not related to the patient. But they said in class yesterday that they should be personal reflections, so that's what I'm doing.

The patient is dealing with what he has experienced with a lot of strength. This might not seem clinically relevant, but it is. If anything, my life in Twelve has taught me that if a patient does not have anything to live for, that patient won't live. By all accounts, the same should be true for this patient. His family is dead, as are almost all of his neighbors and friends. Only nine people from the merchant quarter made it out of the bombing at all. His community has been completely taken out.

If that were not enough, as we all saw in the Quell, the patient was ready to give up his life, give up everything, for someone he has recently been convinced is a monster created to destroy him. I feel certain that a lesser man would have gone completely crazy.

But the patient has not done so.

Perhaps he seems so to many, including my sister. He is deranged, that is certain. But he's desperate to find what is real, despite the awful reality of his situation. And he is incredibly protective of Soldier 2458: D. Cartwright. After they spoke, he ranted and raved for hours about how she needed to stay away from Soldier… well, from Katniss, whatever her number is. He fought us, hurting himself in the process, in an effort to help her. This is not the behavior of a man completely lost.

I only wish I knew how to really help.

**_Patient 823- Week Two Reflection_**

Today I spoke to the patient for the first time. Before then, I sat behind the two way mirror, taking notes, and gathering materials for Nurse Harmony. But today I was asked to bring him his lunch.

I am beginning to suspect that my assignment to this patient has little to do with my training, or even the patient's healing, but instead to test the reactions of a hijacked patient. I am not at all certain that anything the doctors have done will help in the long run, as they seem to keep running tests like this, introducing things that don't really work.

Having me bring him his lunch set him into a panic. He told me that he was so sorry, but my sister was really a mutt, and I needed to be brave, and try to run far, far away from her. And then he screamed in rage, and burst into tears. It was very painful to watch.

Although I am only new to training, it seems to me that an alternative course of action would be better.

Could it be possible to hijack him back?

They made him watch footage and then injected him with something that made him anxious. That's what everyone thinks, anyway. Couldn't we do the opposite? Show him footage of my sister, and then inject him with something that calms him, makes him feel good?

Maybe morphling?

**_Patient 823- Week Three Reflection_**

The patient has improved, but I don't know why. He seems to be doing it by sheer force of will. The doctors seemed to like my idea, but it didn't really work. When we tried it, he just stared at the wall for hours.

Every day he gets just a little bit better, though. He's stopped trying to convince me that Katniss is evil when I bring his meals. Sometimes, I get to sit with him as he draws, and we talk about home. We lived such different lives that it is hard sometimes to find common ground, but there are still things. He drew me a picture of Lady, and another of the Meadow. He has regained the ability in many situations, to focus on a task and complete it.

He even spoke to Soldier 2791: H. Abernathy, which went much better than any of us expected. Of course, the patient was incredibly angry, but for reasons that make me angry at Haymitch too.

The most incredibly turnaround of came from Mr. Heavensbee's request that the patient create a wedding cake. I spent several days with him in the kitchens, supervising his medication, but really just watching him work. I always loved to look at the cakes he made in the bakery windows back home.

And the longer he worked, the calmer he seemed, despite the fact that there were armed guards all around us. One day, I tripped and knocked frosting all over my clothes, and he actually laughed with me! That was the same day he asked if he could talk to Katniss. When I asked him why, he told me that he wasn't certain, it just seemed like something he had to do to get some sort of peace.

**_Patient 823- Week Four Reflection_**

The conversation with Katniss, although it did not seem encouraging to listen to, marked a huge change in the patient's behavior. He asked if he might be allowed to eat dinner and train with others, something he wasn't interested in doing before. He also asked to be allowed to work in the kitchens regularly, even if it meant he spend the entire time "manacled to the counter."

I've watched him over several night shifts, and regardless of how hard he works during the day, the patient is unable to sleep at night. He calls out my sister's name, but in a different way than normally, in a way that sounds like he still loves her. But when he wakes up, he just looks confused, like he has no idea who he is and how he could have dreamed whatever it was he was dreaming.

Daily activities are still somewhat of a challenge sometimes. The patient's brain scans show that the tracker jacker venom has permanently damaged certain memory centers in his brain, and the doctor says he has to learn to compensate. In this atmosphere, alone, and largely unloved, this sort of learning comes hard. Many of the Thirteen residents still view him as a traitor, despite the fact that he saved all of our lives by warning us about the bombing. The only people who come to see him on a regular basis are Delly Cartwright and Johanna Mason.

**_Patient 823- Week Five Reflection_**

My sister and the rest of the Star Squad left for the Capitol today, and the effect on the patient was extreme. He paced his room for hours, while Johanna Mason sat on his bed, trying to calm him down by insulting him. In the end, he had to be sedated.

He says he doesn't understand why he's even upset. That he should feel better now that she's gone, but he can't. All he wants is to be near her, even though whenever she's nearby all he can think of his her death. He said he's worried that he'll never be able to feel anything normal again. I don't think that's true, but the reassuring words of a fourteen-year-old don't help much.

A day ago, he was called away to a secret meeting with the President, and he won't tell any of us about it, but his anxiety and strain has increased significantly since then. Haymitch comes and goes pretty regularly, and they have long, private talks, but his appearance doesn't do much to calm the patient down. In fact, it makes it worse.

I don't know how wars are supposed to be fought, and how governments are supposed to be run, but something about all of this seems terribly wrong.

_Dear President Coin,_

_As a member of Patient 823: Peeta Mellark's medical team, I strongly protest his deployment as a replacement member of Squad 451._

_The patient has made incredible progress. I have no doubt that he will one day recover to the point which he will be able to function as a member of society. However, this day has not yet arrived._

_You have personally seen to it to deploy the patient against the express opinions of his medical team. Doctor 64, Nurse 231, and I, myself have submitted numerous reports, relaying his progress. None have even remotely suggested that he be returned into an environment filled with nothing but triggering experiences._

_I will be blunt, President Coin. If he joins the Star Squad, Peeta Mellark will attempt to kill my sister. In doing so, he will either succeed, or be killed himself by her, or one of the other members of their squad. The damage this will do to the squad both in numbers, as well as to morale, could be crippling, and may result in all of their deaths._

_No one in the hospital will speak against you. They're afraid. But I am not. Without Peeta Mellark, my sister would quite likely be dead, or at the very least, a Capitol slave. And I am not about to let that sort of debt go unpaid. I know I am young, but there are very few people in this country who do not recognize my face. Don't underestimate the sort of damage, I can do._

_If the matter is not resolved immediately, I will take it to Plutarch Heavensbee and even to the Council myself._

_Respectfully,_

_Primrose Everdeen _


End file.
